I’ve grown quite fond of the crazy t-shirts that one can find wandering Bangkok’s forgotten malls and hidden shopping dens; they offer everything from cutesey Japanese manga characters to X-rated slogans and pictures. Although shirts in my size (XL to XXL depending on which brand it is) rarely have anything cool on them, I’m still able to find the odd gem with a pithy slogan or cool picture (except my “On the Eh Team” Canadian flag t-shirt which I had to order online). But what really makes the whole thing pop is that a lot of times, Thais don’t seem to understand the subtle meaning of their shirt’s slogan. Or, like this girl, they do, and just don’t give a crap.
I never really got a good look at her face, but despite the maturity of her t-shirt’s thought process, I suspect she was about 15 or 16. I flashed back to a shirt my Mom bought me for my 16th birthday, which had a skull and the words “Punk Rock” emblazoned on the front. Tsk, kids these days.
Ahhh, the sage advice that any grandparent passes down to their innocent young grand kids.
Everyone who has been here even a little while has mental collection of their favorite ones of these. My top three:
1. The girl at the Carrefour mobile phone counter off Rama IV whose shirt said "If pigs could fly, I’d be a flying pig-fucker." Cartoons of winged porcine copulation included.
2. The nice young woman on line in front of me at the ATM on Thong Lor who decided to announce to all "I’m Not Gay But My Asshole Is." Illustrations gratefully skipped.
3. Finally, not particularly salacious and probably just a typo, we have the classically Greek themed "Born to Jove."
My all time favourite was the middle aged, propserous looking woman on the BTS whose t-shirt said "Eat me, I’m kosher."